<a>

Baseline Widely available *

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since ⁨July 2015⁩.

* Some parts of this feature may have varying levels of support.

The <a> SVG element creates a hyperlink to other web pages, files, locations in the same page, email addresses, or any other URL. It is very similar to HTML's <a> element.

SVG's <a> element is a container, which means you can create a link around text (like in HTML) but also around any shape.

Usage context

Categories	Container element
Permitted content	Any number of the following elements, in any order: Animation elements Descriptive elements Shape elements Structural elements Gradient elements `<a>`, `<clipPath>`, `<filter>`, `<foreignObject>`, `<image>`, `<marker>`, `<mask>`, `<pattern>`, `<script>`, `<style>`, `<switch>`, `<text>`, `<view>`

Attributes

download: Instructs browsers to download a URL instead of navigating to it, so the user will be prompted to save it as a local file. Value type: <string>; Default value: none; Animatable: no
href: The URL or URL fragment the hyperlink points to. Value type: <URL>; Default value: none; Animatable: yes
hreflang: The human language of the URL or URL fragment that the hyperlink points to. Value type: <string>; Default value: none; Animatable: no
ping Experimental: A space-separated list of URLs to which, when the hyperlink is followed, POST requests with the body PING will be sent by the browser (in the background). Typically used for tracking. For a more widely-supported feature addressing the same use cases, see Navigator.sendBeacon(). Value type: <list-of-URLs>; Default value: none; Animatable: no
referrerpolicy: Which referrer to send when fetching the URL. Value type: no-referrer | no-referrer-when-downgrade | same-origin | origin | strict-origin | origin-when-cross-origin | strict-origin-when-cross-origin | unsafe-url; Default value: none; Animatable: no
rel: The relationship of the target object to the link object. Value type: <list-of-Link-Types>; Default value: none; Animatable: no
target: Where to display the linked URL. Value type: _self | _parent | _top | _blank | <XML-Name>; Default value: _self; Animatable: yes
type: A MIME type for the linked URL. Value type: <string>; Default value: none; Animatable: no
xlink:href Deprecated: The URL or URL fragment that the hyperlink points to. May be required for backwards compatibility for older browsers. Value type: <URL>; Default value: none; Animatable: yes

DOM Interface

This element implements the SVGAElement interface.

Example

@namespace svg url("http://www.w3.org/2000/svg");
html,
body,
svg {
  height: 100%;
}

html

<svg viewBox="0 0 100 100" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
  <!-- A link around a shape -->
  <a href="/docs/Web/SVG/Reference/Element/circle">
    <circle cx="50" cy="40" r="35" />
  </a>

  <!-- A link around a text -->
  <a href="/docs/Web/SVG/Reference/Element/text">
    <text x="50" y="90" text-anchor="middle">&lt;circle&gt;</text>
  </a>
</svg>

css

/* As SVG does not provide a default visual style for links,
   it's considered best practice to add some */

@namespace svg url("http://www.w3.org/2000/svg");
/* Necessary to select only SVG <a> elements, and not also HTML's.
   See warning below */

svg|a:link,
svg|a:visited {
  cursor: pointer;
}

svg|a text,
text svg|a {
  fill: blue; /* Even for text, SVG uses fill over color */
  text-decoration: underline;
}

svg|a:hover,
svg|a:active {
  outline: dotted 1px blue;
}

Warning: Since this element shares its tag name with HTML's <a> element, selecting a with CSS or querySelector may apply to the wrong kind of element. Try the @namespace rule to distinguish the two.

Specifications

Specification
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 2 # AElement

Browser compatibility

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This page was last modified on ⁨Aug 5, 2025⁩ by MDN contributors.

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<a>